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Vancouver Day Trip

Went to Vancouver today with a couple of friends: stanman, Joe, and Saran (the guys I had Thanksgiving dinner with). Had a really good time. Joe was the driver, so much prop for him. Drive took about 2.5-3hrs, wasn’t bad. We started by having dim sum at a place called Floata in Old Chinatown (not the new one in Richmond). Anyway, I was QUITE disappointed with the quality of the food (not the service, but there was that weird waiter). The quality of the restaurant, although recommended by many websites, was subpar to even the level of Southern California. Last time I went to a place called Sun Sui Wah in Richmond and that dim sum was a lot better. After dim sum, we walked around ChinaTown for a bit looking for a martial arts store to check out swords and stuff. When we got there, it showed a sign that said “Be back in 3 minutes”. We chilled at the nearby Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park looking for fish (couldn’t find any though). We also got to see some demonstration against I’m guessing the current mayor for making false promises. When we came back to the martial arts store, the sign changed to “Out to lunch. Be back in 1 hr.” Obviously we left.

We went to Stanley Park next. Stanley Park claimed to be the 3rd largest urban park in North America, which got me thinking, which one’s #1 and #2? Saran thinks Central Park in New York is the largest followed by Golden Gate park in San Francisco. If anyone can confirm, that’d be nice. Anyway, the park was really big and nice. It was basically in a pennisula and had beaches and hiking trails and totem poles. A great place for some outdoor recreation. We walked along the border, checked out the city from afar, strolled along the beaches, took pictures, and just chilled. You could see more pictures of the park in my photo album. Link should be provided near the bottom.

After Stanley Park, we drove along the beach and took a ferry to Granville Island. Granville Island was more of a shopping place with tons of little shops and street performers. After Granville Island, we took the ferry back and drove all the way to Gastown. They had these very pretty street lamps, different from any other part of the city and apparently that’s how you tell where Gastown starts and ends. The famous steam powered clock was also there and we actually got to hear it chirp or play a tune or whatever they called it.

After Gastown, we drove to Davie St since Saran says that’s the street where a good selection of restaurants were. After walking around for awhile, we wanted to try that greek place, but there was a line of people waiting outside and we didn’t want to get home that late, so we tried this other Japanese restaurant which Saran also tried. It was sushi buffet but was by order, which totally reminded me of Sushi Chardonnay back in San Francisco which cari and decathanerd always took me to. The quality of sushi was good. The selection was actually a lot bigger than Chardonnay’s. It had 4 types of sushi (well 3 + sashimi). It had the nigiri (slice of meat on top of rice), sushi rolls, sushi cones, and sashimi. Three types of sashimi were available: Salmon, Tuna, and Toro (fatty tuna). The sides were also interesting ranging from oysters to calamari to tempura to soba/udon to ice cream. Cost was only CAD$19 which is only US$16.25. Tax is also cheaper in Canada, with food service tax being 7%.

Apparently, there’s 3 levels of sales taxes in Canada. There’s the PST+GST, which you have to pay for anything non-food related, like electronics. Then there’s the GST which you have to pay for processed food, such as restaurants or fried chicken. Then there’s food that didn’t require cooking or something like that which is tax-free like USA. I’m guessin GST = General Sales Tax and PST = Provincial Sales Tax, but I may just be pulling that out of my *cough*.

So that ends our trip to Vancouver. I’m pretty sure a lot more happened and many many interesting conversations came up, but it’s too late and I don’t remember. hehe.

Took some pictures (not many), but you can check it out in my photo album.

When I got into my own car to drive home, there was actually ICE on my windshield. Wasn’t much, but I’d say it was about 3mm thick or so. Using my windshield wipers didn’t work. I actually turned on the defroster at high heat and after awhile, you could actually see slushy being formed.

Only thing I was worried about during the entire trip was Audrey the dog. She was basically alone in the house for 16hrs and who knew what type of damage she could do. I was actually sorta expecting the worse where she somehow managed to break the chain off and destory my apartment. I was also expecting her to actually poop and pee on the floor. The worse of my nightmares didn’t come true, but the 2nd closest thing did. Before I left this morning, I took her on a 15min walk to try to get the pee and poop out of her. She only took a piss, so I thought she didn’t have anything. But before I left, she started squirming like crazy (the squirm that either indicates she’s really hungry, she’s needs to use the restroom, or she wants some major attention), but I really needed to go since we setup a time to meet beforehand. So I was hoping she just wanted some major attention and left her. However as I noted, Audrey was always on my mind (not the good part of my mind). Somehow typing that phrase reminded me of the song in my head, “Always in my mind…. Always in my mind.” Anyway, back to the story. This was @ 6:40am in the morning and she was whining and barking. I hope it didn’t wake up my neighbors. I come home and and find piss on the carpet, not too bad, I’ve dealt with that before, but she looked like she really needed to go badly, so I took her for a walk, this time all the way to the park and back (takes about 30mins) and she took 2 dumps and 2 pisses. Hopefully clearing her system. I come up and feed her and lock her in the bathroom while I clean up. Then I noticed the poop smudges. Not a poop, but like it was about to come out and it smudged the carpet (sorta like how when you try to keep poop in your butt, but some of it comes out and smudges your underwear). Anyway, I took care of that with some AJAX. Was easier to clean than what I expected it to be like. Anyway, even after taking her for a walk and feeding her, she continues to jump, bark and whine. So I get pissed at this point and tie her outside literally for 30mins without answer her whines. And lemme tell you, she whined the entire 30 minutes (you’ll find out why later). Somehow she managed to trapper herself by going in circles around a pillar (twice!) and couldn’t untie the knot. I help her untie it and bring her back in and she’s been quiet ever since. I think that’s probably what I’m going to do when she starts whining again for no reason.